Monday 14 April 2014

Serious Weekend Racing

After some light posts last week there is plenty to wrap up from the weekend.

Let's start with the racing. The big events were the first round of the Mountain Bike World Cup in South Africa and the big cobbled classic for the road boys, Paris-Roubaix. The Cross Country races were much as expected, with Julian Absalon taking the men's race after a badly timed puncture for Nino Shurter put him out of contention and back in seventh. The women's race was won by U23 World Champion Jolande Neff in the heat. British interest was there in the shape of Tracey Moseley who has previously won the downhill in Pietermaritzberg.


The weekend was opened with the Downhill which gave more to talk about as all but one team rocked up on 650b wheels (with The Santa Cruz Syndicate the only major team with 26” wheels on their V10s) and with defending champion Steve Smith out with injury.

The women's race was shaken up by Rachel Atherton having been suffering with a bacterial infection all week. It's a testament to the strength of these athletes that she raced hard and finished second behind fellow Brit, Manon Carpenter.

The men's event was less impressive for British riders, with Gee Atherton unusually out of the top ten and the fight at the top being decided between early leader Mick Hannah with local boy Greg Minnaar the firm favourite. Minnaar could only manage third and after a storming Josh Bryceland had transmission issues that put him out of contention Hannah was holding on. The last rider down the mountain was Aaron Gwin, trying to put a terrible 2013 season behind him. His run was a reminder of the 2011 and 2012 seasons where he was totally dominant, and he smashed Hannah off the top spot to take the win and, obviously the series lead. Check it out for yourself in some highlights.

Then there was the road. Paris-Roubaix is seen by many people as one of the best races of the year, and Britain was strongly represented for the cobbles as Wiggins, Thomas and Rowe turned out for Sky. The coverage was only on Eurosport, but based on the live text updates it looked like a thrilling day out as Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins worked hard to be in the elite peloton that would contest the win. A strong attack from Omega-Pharma Quickstep rider Terpstra gave him the win in the end with Thomas and Wiggins in 7th and 9th.

My weekend was heavily bike-related as well, but perhaps that's a story for another day.

A

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